Launched in 2006, Twitter had an amazing roller-coaster life. The founders never expected it to be a success when the network hit 1 million coveted users. However, things continued to go up until the last year or so.
At the moment, the famous blue bird is flying low with a wounded wing. The tech pundits have already predicted the company’s nose dive demise into failure. To be honest, many people believe that Twitter’s fate is not going to be any different than My Space if necessary changes are not incorporated anytime soon.
We all know what happened to My Space; it was the ground breaking social network where everyone loved to hangout. Tom was in everyone’s friends list. The website had its time, and long before Facebook came, My Space was already roaming the back alleys of the social media industry. Yes, it is true Facebook’s popularity caused My Space to shut down, but there were other reasons as well.
Today as we contemplate what fate has in store for Twitter, the company is struggling to maintain its rating. Still, Twitter had an amazing time, it was, and still is, popular in many ways. The service was top notch from many aspects and the overall originality perspective.
These things led people to grow fond of the network. Even media sometimes loves Twitter for real time updates, but it can turn into jealous love pretty soon – sometimes the allegorical version of summertime love that fazes in and out of various changes. It is just how things are today. By writing down this article, I took the opportunity to discuss prospects for Twitter in near future. Here’s why this popular platform is desired and preferred among others social media services on the internet.
Twitter is Ideal for Businesses
Yep, it still is. Because Twitter allows for only 140 character limit, businesses are limited to stick with to- the-point pitches. Customers at Twitter are more likely to buy from such businesses because they don’t have to go through descriptive sales letters, phone calls and vice versa. Henceforth, these customers not only follow small businesses easily at Twitter, but are also likely to recommend it to others in the community.
However, Twitter itself is not going to impact sales conversion for businesses. While many SMBs are reveling in success, some have failed too. The latter reportedly did not communicate well with followers, or their Tweets were not impactful. You know what I mean? If you are limited to 140 characters, you really have to plan your tweets, instead of just rambling about a product and cutting off mid-sentence.
The Insider Scoop: I am an entrepreneur, who had the distinct pleasure of marketing businesses via Facebook and Twitter paid campaigns. I felt that Facebook is too broad, and pulls in “Likes” from customers who are just tapping buttons for the love of it. They are not potential customers, and hence they end up wasting advertisers’ budget easily.
Twitter paid campaigns are micromanaged at several levels. If you haven’t planned an ad campaign, you should do that right away. You will notice that throughout the setup phase, Twitter will maneuver you across a series of detailed sections where you have to fill in all kinds of specifics about your business and target audience. The end result is phenomenal and totally worth the effort.
In with the Good One; out with the Bad One
An average Twitter user feels comfortable at lamenting how bad his day was as compared to other social media platforms. Facebook is too much of a hassle to post one update in the “status” message panel, and Pinterest is just not meant for this sort of activity. Twitter provides more of a direct, and hands-on approach when someone wants to blurt something out.
People let out or express easily at Twitter, as if they are metaphorically speaking with someone on the other side. Of course, there is an added benefit in there; the tweet has the potential to let that rage or happiness to be shared among millions of people out there.
The Insider Scoop: Tweets are good in small doses. I have seen people making fun of Twitter because it tends to become a nonstop chitter chatter of conversation. Smosh, the famous YouTubers had a good laugh when they posted several videos to express their views on Twitter from the comfort of a bathroom, a dining room and many other places that are too personal.
Political Warfare at Twitter is like None Other
Main article: Twitter Politics
Back in 2009, the U.S. government oversaw extensive use of Twitter at the hands of politicians, congressmen, citizens, and the Obama administration itself – so much so that there were numerous occasions when official requests were sent to Twitter to resume services whenever it unexpectedly went in maintenance mode.
The most recent election campaign also followed the same trend. Maybe because the Obama administration laid the foundational blueprint for the Twitter community. These users had the ability to directly engage with senators to let them in on a little bit of “heart to heart” conversation. Also, such tweets were a great way of expressing views about key votes right where it mattered the most.
The Insider Scoop: The U.S. is not the only country to turn to Twitter during historic moments. We all know that Iran, Iraq, Turkey, and the ongoing Syrian refugee crisis use Twitter to reflect upon ongoing events in real time. It is another thing that Iran and Turkey tend to ban Twitter whenever something important is going on at government level, but still people find ways to bypass these firewalls.
In many ways, Twitter has become the voice of reason and raw truth which the media has always avoided under certain circumstances. People have often used the microblogging website to show their support or a sense of contempt against anything that’s going on in any part of the world.
Is Twitter struggling?
In a lot of ways, yes, it is struggling to retain the growth factor. Many things have contributed to the network’s demise. For instance, as much as Twitter gave an insight on real time events, people used the opportunity to spread fake news. The viral effect worked its charm whether it was for Twitter’s success or against it.
The tech industry is not wrong in forecasting Twitter’s demeanor in near future if necessary changes are not made. For starters, they could rollout some regulatory checks to keep the trolls in line. Secondly, the god damn Easter egg profiles with spam content are still there. We all love Twitter, but it has become polluted with a spam culture which was not paid attention to.
Gradually, the clutter increased so much that the resultant effect caused a steady decline in user engagement and population altogether. On the front, it may seem like that Twitter is keeping up with statistics, but if we take a closer look, a lot seems to be going wrong. The massive population is overtaken by bots, unwanted spam accounts and low quality content that is not only redundant but extremely irritating to legit users.
Twitter did ban the harassers, revenge porn fanatics and many unwanted users but it is a never-ending cycle. Think of the mythological seven headed serpent; you cut off one head to find two more in its place. However, all is not lost yet. If the team behind Twitter starts taking sound decisions, and hire experts who know what they are doing, the negative aspects can be mitigated to great extent.
All it needs is one big swing or several small ones to get things going in momentum. We might be seeing another half decade of Twitter’s golden era where there are less trolls and absolutely a strong policy to deal with the abuse factor.
Why we won’t allow Twitter to fail
Let’s imagine for a few minutes that the Twitter days are over. By now the company is dissolved into liquidated assets and there is nothing left in the wake of new events. What impact will it have on the public? There is no doubt that the average user will miss Twitter because there won’t be any other medium which allowed for a more direct approach to connect.
There won’t be any real-time exchange of views on current events, there won’t be those hashtag revolutions that good brands and companies use to bring quality services to clients – so on and so forth. In other words, there won’t be any “Twitter” anymore…
Of course, time doesn’t stop anywhere. There will be a barrage of rival companies, with a slew of self proclaimed college grads, who will stop at nothing to create the next big dot com product. However, we can say with certainty that it won’t be the actual replacement for the microblogging website. It is not too late to implement changes to fix things once again.
edited by Danil Rudoy – February 2017
